Sunday, January 25, 2009

March 13, 1932



FILM ACTRESS MUST ENTER SANITARIUM

Hollywood, March 12 (UP)
Joan Blondell, film comedienne, has been sent to a sanitarium for an indeterminate length of time.
The actress was ordered to take the rest by her physician who said Miss Blondell was suffering from nervous strain and was six pounds underweight.




ACTOR’S PAYCHECK HELD ON ORDERS OF EX-WIFE

San Francisco, March 12
Ian Keith, stage and screen actor appearing here, went payless today when his salary check was attached by Miss Ethel Clayton.
Two weeks after obtaining a divorce from Mr. Keith, Miss Clayton, stage and screen actress, filed suit in superior court seeking recovery of $4827.50 she says she loaned her husband during their four years of married life.
Her action was filed through an attorney, S. L. Fendel. Miss Clayton is said to be in southern California at present. Keith is now appearing at a local theater as the star of “Grand Hotel,” German melodrama.
In her suit for divorce heard in Los Angeles, Miss Clayton testified that Keith acted toward her in an “ungentlemanly and unhusband-like manner.” She charged him with spending so much money on liquor that he was unable to support her. The couple were married in Minneapolis in 1928, and the divorce decree was granted February 26 last.




FOR THE MARX BROTHERS

Hollywood is already snickering over the Marx Brothers. The general idea of their next comedy “Horse Feathers,” is responsible, although not a gag has been revealed. It will be laid on a college campus with Groucho as president, Zeppo as his son spending his fifth year as a freshman, Chico will be an iceman, Harpo a dogcatcher. Both go to college to play on the football team. Imagine that!

From Luella O. Parsons:



Hollywood, March 12
You must admire Mrs. Cooper for the way she is raising Jackie. The little boy has no idea of his importance in the cinema world, neither does he have any notion of the amount of money he is earning. Jackie gets 50 cents a week for spending money and hordes it as carefully as any other youngster. Last week his mother took Jackie to the beach and he saw a little boy playing extra for an independent company. The two boys got together. “How much money do you get?” Jackie asked the little extra. “Oh, I get $5,” replied the child. Jackie looked at him with envy and said “Gee, you must be making a lot of money. I only get 50 cents a week.”



Jack Oakie may not be a hero to his valet, or even to his friends at Paramount studio, but he is all right with his niece. The little girl whose name is Virginia Lindbergh places Jack on a pedestal along with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Her teacher was telling her the famous story of George Washington and the cherry tree, ending with “and George said to his father ‘Father, I cannot tell a lie.’ Now, children” said the teacher, “do you know any other famous saying by famous Americans?” Up went Virginia’s hand and she said “Jack Oakie always says: ‘Keep in touch with me.’”



Marie Dressler’s convalescence has been made happy by seeing motion pictures of many of her studio friends. Sidney Cohen, formerly associated with Pat Powers, sent a portable sound machine to Miss Dressler’s home and Louis B. Mayer has kept her supplied with movies. The portable is an invention recently completed. It can be taken not only into a home but also aboard a ship or on a train. The cost is much less than the expense of equipping a home with the sound paraphernalia.

Hollywood has been “Cyrano de Bergeracked” to death. First Richard Bennett and then Walter Hampden. Everyone has been talking about Rostand’s play and comparing the two performances. Jimmy Durante was asked why he didn’t play the part. Said Jimmy, “They tried to get me but it wasn’t a big enough part for me.” Speaking of Jimmy and that famous nose of his, I heard him say the other day, “I’ve got a better profile than Barrymore because mine begins where Jack’s leaves off.” No wonder Jimmy is popular when he can laugh at himself.



Dear, dear, dear. We had so many laughs over Helen Hayes’ real name being Psyche Flannigan and here it isn’t true. James Mitchell, star reporter on the Los Angeles Examiner, received a letter from Miss Hayes’ mother, Mrs. Brown. Says Mrs. Brown: “I ought to know my daughter’s real name. She was born and christened Helen Hayes Brown.” The Psyche Flannigan, it appears, is the name of a character Miss Hayes played on the stage some years ago.




ED ROBINSON PLAYS ROLE OF CHINESE

Edward G. Robinson comes to the Majestic theater today in his latest characterization, that of the heroic Wong Low Get in “The Hatchet Man.”
Gorgeously staged and photographed, the thrilling scenes of the melodramatic romance are laid in China – at Hangkow and on the Yangtze river – and in the Chinatown of San Francisco.
As the honorable Mr. Wong he is commanded by his tong to execute an enemy, Sun Yet Sen, who had been a boyhood friend. Sun wills Wong all his property and secures his promise to marry his daughter, Toya San, then but six.
The story recounts the exciting adventures of Mr. Wong as protector, and later as husband of pretty Toya San – whom he gives up to her half-caste lover, and finally rescues from slavery in old China.
The cast includes Loretta Young as Toya San, Leslie Fenton as her evil lover – Dudley Digges, Tully Marshall.

STATE CUTS PRICE IN FAMILY CIRCLE

The smoking balcony at the State theater has been rechristened the Family Circle and will be opened to patrons Friday with the inauguration of the new show, Ernst Lubitsch’s “Broken Lullaby.” Smoking will be allowed in the Family Circle and a new low price prevails in order to make State entertainment accessible at a cheaper rate to those who attend as family parties.




FEMALE SPIES FILM FEATURE

With a refreshing newness of locale – mysterious St. Petersburg and glamorous Bucharest – and a lively sky theme with romantic highlights, ably cast, Ivan Lebedeff first starring picture, “Gay Diplomat” opens Saturday.
The film features Genevieve Tobin and Betty Compson with Lebedeff in a story which intrigues the interest with its fast action and excellent direction.
It is all about spies – seductive, unscrupulous women who barter their loves and honors for diplomatic information – and of falcon men who search them out. Mystery, romance, and the fury of battle on the Russian front combine with the magnificent sets and natural outdoor tableaux in a picture worthy of extreme praise.




ELISSA LANDI WIGWAM STAR

“The Yellow Ticket,” unfolding a dramatic picture of the days of barbaric splendor preceding the gigantic uprising of 1917 that ended in the execution of the czar and his family in Russia, comes to the Wigwam theater today with the glamorous Elissa Landi in the leading role.
Featured with her in this Fox photoplay are Lionel Barrymore and Laurence Olivier. Miss Landi portrays the role of the Russian peasant girl who is compelled to apply for a yellow ticket which brands her as a social outcast. Barrymore enacts the role of the chief of the secret police who persecutes her until she is forced to kill him, and Olivier, an English journalist, who falls in love with her.




‘BOUGHT’ AT MAJESTIC FRIDAY

Stephany Dale, heroine of “Bought,” the Warner Bros. modern drama starring Constance Bennett, coming to the Majestic theater Friday, has but one desire, and that is that she elevate herself to “high” society.
Her mad career leads from mannequin to social secretary and finally to engagement with a rather unstable member of the fast set. It is her father, whose identity she does not know, who finally helps to bring her back to a right sense of values – and incidentally to the youth whom she had cast aside because of his poverty.




‘SEED’ AT GRANADA, BOLES IS STAR

“Seed,” Universal’s domestic drama which comes to the Granada theater on Tuesday, is John Boles’ first talking picture in which he has not sung, but the picture is said to give him the greatest acting role of his career.
Boles is seen as a devoted husband and father of a large family of children, until the sweetheart of his youth, now a worldly sophisticated woman of the world, comes into his life again and brings about a great change in his ideas of life and conduct. Genevieve Tobin is seen as the sweetheart, while the role of Boles’ wife is played by Lois Wilson.

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